Collection: Tee Shirts

The “Wild West” marketing practices of the electronic cigarette (e-cig) industry has led to the reintroduction of product merchandising. Many e-cig companies offer free branded tee shirts as a teen marketing strategy while some e-cig companies sell branded tee-shirts in a bid to build community presence.

The tee- shirts in this category range from community-driven shirts that make puns or borrow from popular cultural references (e.g. “Keep Calm and Vape On” or “Vape Life”), to company branded merchandise (e.g. “You Don’t Know Jac” shirt from JacVapour, an e-cig company). Since freedom to vape is a popular advertising theme, especially in the face of in-door smoking restrictions in many cities, some of the tee-shirts have political slogans such as “Vape! Fight For Your Right.”

The Master Settlement Agreement of 1998 explicitly banned tobacco branding on merchandise because of its youth appeal. Given that e-cig companies are aggressively targeting teens, should they not also be required to follow the standard established for combustible cigarette products?